Humans need water, food, and shelter to survive. These essential items can be difficult due to natural or man-made disasters, or war. For instance, a drought can result in the loss of potable water, a war can result in a lack of medicine, a hurricane can result in the loss of shelter, and so forth. While providing relief supplies to such areas is critical, it is important that all aspects of the relief supplies can be used.
In many instances, potable water is provided in containers and the containers are discarded after use. Similarly, food may be provided in containers wherein the containers are discarded after use. The Applicant recognized the problems with shipping and wasted packaging. The Applicant further recognized that conventional construction materials are very expensive to ship. There are numerous reasons why a conventional structure could not be built immediately after a disaster including the lack of skilled labor. However, there is always an immediate need for shelter and waiting for construction materials and skilled labor can be impractical. For instance, after the earthquake disaster in Haiti, families were in dire need of food, water, and shelter. Transports made herculean efforts to deliver food and water, and the delivery of construction materials would naturally follow.
The Applicant was granted U.S. Pat. No. 8,316,610 for a multipurpose container having a hollow interior with a fill port opening receptive to storing of water, food, or other supplies. The container can be immediately assembled to create a temporary structure, the structure can then be dismantled as the food, water and supplies are needed. Once water, food, or other supplies are withdrawn from the containers, hereinafter referred to as construction blocks, the construction blocks can then be reused to hold earth materials to allow for structure formation. The construction blocks have interlocking protrusions and receptacles for use in aligning similar shaped construction blocks for building of a structure, the construction block further included an anchoring pipe that was attached to the external surface of the block which would be used to interconnect construction blocks.
What the applicant has discovered to be lacking in the art is for a utility kit for use in combination with construction blocks wherein the kit provides utility receptacles and a fire grate that can be used in preparing the contents of the construction block for human consumption, the utility receptacles further operate as shovels for filling of the construction blocks with earth sand or soil, and the grate can be dismantled to provide further anchoring structure.
Known prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,424 which discloses a skillet, a cooking pan, and a kettle where the cooking pan nests within the skillet and the kettle nests within the skillet over the cooking pan. The cooking pan, inverted, fits over the skillet to form a food storage container, and the skillet handle, when the assembly is assembled, fits over and around the kettle, locking the cooking assembly together.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,075,078 discloses a survival kit, used for containing items for use in a survival emergency, which can be emptied of its contents and its parts can be assembled in varying combinations to become alternately a canteen flask, stew pot, kettle, or skillet.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,809,596 discloses a canteen and a pair of pans adapted to cap opposite sides of the canteen in a nesting engagement. The nesting engagement can be received by a kettle formed to hold the pans in place on the canteen.
Thus what is needed in the art is an apparatus that can provide necessary cooking materials and be utilized as a construction block for use in the building of bunkers, retention walls, small homes, and the like, structures for the protection of humans and their property.